Schooled (21 page)

“Leo, I’m thinking you’re gonna hafta just flip a coin.” There really was no other way to decide. He couldn’t buy them both, which reminded me, “So uh, when you said that you wanted to buy a house, I figured that meant some little starter house. How’re you gonna pay for this?” It was a nosy question, but these houses were gorgeous. When Marc and I were house hunting, he and I couldn’t have come close to this price range. I was curious.

“I’ve got some money stashed away, saved for a rainy day.” He said.

“Some money? Leo, both houses are gorgeous; did you rob a bank? Sell crack in college?” I joked.

“Well, you know me, anything for a buck,” He shot back, smiling. “Nah, not so much. I pretty much saved every penny I’ve ever made and then, when my grandma died, she left a large chunk of her savings to my sister and me.” Listening, I realized that when Leo spoke of his family, he always got a little sappy, but remorseful. I needed more information on that someday. “So now I’ve got money and a decision to make.” And what a decision that was. Two perfect but very different houses.

Something didn’t add up. “If you’ve got all this money, then why in the Hell are you doing Jasper’s yard?” I asked, utterly confused. “Why aren’t you enjoying your summer and hanging out with your new work friends?” I knew Jasper wasn’t paying him all that much; Leo was an accountant. He obviously didn’t need this weekend landscaping gig.

He looked away, then into the review mirror, avoiding my gaze. He was silent for a bit, then said, “Let’s just say I love working outside and the company’s pretty nice.”

Huh? I didn’t follow, “What company? Garrity Advertising?” I asked, clueless.

He shook his head, dropping his eyes from the road, sighing, “You’re gonna make me say it, aren’t you?” I looked at him dumbly, still not understanding. “You, Miss… you Janelle, I like coming over to see you, to talk and hang out.” He took his eyes off the road and looked at me, awaiting my reaction to this revelation.

I looked away, immediately, not responding to him, embarrassed by his confession. But why? I’d wanted him, hoping he saw something in me. So now, why was I so uncomfortable with his admission? Thinking about it, fantasizing, well that was one thing; Leo just made something that I kept in the forbidden, something impossible, a reality, and actual possibility. It was suddenly getting very hot.

“Ice cream!” I squealed, thankful for the distraction. “Pull over, let’s get ice cream.” Leo turned the car into the ice cream shop’s parking lot. The place was packed; summer nights’ heat brought people out of the woodwork.

Leo and I stood in line, discussing our many options. Luckily, things were’t uncomfortable between us. It was strange like that with Leo; he’d make these statements and then act as if they never really came out of his mouth. It was a puzzling, yet endearing quality. Normally, when I revealed too much or laid everything out on the table, I was mortified after and wanted to crawl immediately into a hole and hide.

Beginning to eat our sundaes, we decided to sit on the back picnic table at the far corner of the parking lot. I picked up my cherry, disgusted, about to throw it out, when Leo grabbed my wrist, and said, “Don’t even think about it.”

“What? This cherry; you want it?” I teased, trying to release his grip. He was too strong for me. He held my wrist, bringing my hand to his mouth, cherry dangling. He stuck his tongue out, pulling my wrist closer to him. Finally, I unexpectedly gave up restraint at the same time he pulled harder, forcing me to punch him in the mouth, smashing the cherry all over his face.

“Holy shit,” he groaned, holding his mouth.

“Oh my God, Leo, I’m so sorry.” I apologized profusely, trying to wipe his face.

“It’s fine really,” he said, taking the napkins from me to wipe off his face. “But let’s be perfectly clear on this, we’re even now.” He said, smiling, those dimples making me melt. Still feeling horribly, I told him I’d be right back and ran around front to the counter, while he waited at the picnic table.

Returning, I dangled a cherry between my thumb and forefinger, donning the best guilty puppy-dog face I could muster. With my lip out, I said, “Am I forgiven?” He nodded, his eyes blazing. I fed him the cherry; his tongue darted out, grasping the cherry and my thumb simultaneously. He sucked both into his mouth; I gasped.

Frozen, not moving, staring at him, he inched closer to me at the same time we heard, “Miss Garrity!” Startled and guilty, I turned. Vince! He was coming toward us shaking his head. “Well now, Miss Garrity seems like you’re just getting all around this summer, huh?”

The creep. “Hey Vince, do you know Leo Cling; I think you graduated together?” I asked.

Leo stood up, offering his hand; Vince just nodded, and said, “Yeah, didn’t I fuck with you a few times in high school?” Vince laughed, looking smug.

Leo just sat back down, not phased at all by Vince. I rolled my eyes, and turned away from him. Vince walked around to stand between Leo and me, separating us. “So Miss Garrity, it’s good to see you so soon again,” He looked at me with raised eyebrows, and an all-knowing look. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and walked away. Calling over his shoulder, he said, “It’s good to see that you’re still trying to touch so many students’ lives.”

Groaning, I told Leo that I was ready to go back home; we were still about fifteen minutes from my brother’s house. Of all people to run into! Vince was a loud mouth, sneaky bastard. Wasn’t he supposed to be golfing? He’d stopped by the house earlier today to get his clubs from Briggs. How could Briggs be friends with him? Briggs. Oh God, Vince would tell Briggs that I was here with Leo. But what did that matter? That was okay, right? We said we weren’t “dating,” didn’t we? Well, we weren’t. I could hang out with whomever I chose. Why was whomever I chose these days always former students? Hot, sexy, mouth-watering students? This didn’t have to be as big of a deal as I was making it out to be. I toured houses with a former student, offered my advice. We stopped for ice cream, at my request, on the ride home. No more, no less. Briggs had to know Vince was a douche. I could convince Briggs that Vince didn’t know what he saw, if he saw anything at all. I was making too much out of this. Briggs wouldn’t be at my house for another hour; I had time to figure this out.

Leo was quiet on the way home; I welcomed the silence. We listened to
Best of Howard,
only talking when we wanted to comment on the show. Nearing Jasper’s house, Leo finally said, “Janelle, I had fun today; thanks for going with me and for trying to help me decide.” He was so sincere, so sweet. I wondered what would’ve happened if Vince hadn’t shown up. Guess it was for the best. I had to worry about seeing Briggs soon.

Looking down at my phone, I hadn’t realized we’d pulled into the drive until Leo asked, “Hey what’s Briggs Alexander doing here?” Holy fuck! No no no no, this could not be happening.

“Hmmm, not sure, guess we’ll find out,” I responded with a barely audible whisper. I got out of the car and started down the drive. Walking slowly toward him, Leo joined me at my side. This was not good, not good at all.

Leo walked up to Briggs, shook his hand, and said, “Briggs, hey man, that special on ESPN last night was sweet. Congrats, dude.” Leo thumped his back, looked at me and said, “Did you see it Jan…Miss Garrity?” Briggs caught Leo’s stumble with my name, glanced at him quickly, but then his gaze, his burning hurtful gaze stayed mainly on me. Oh fuck! Oh fuck!

With his blazing crystal blue eyes still pinned only on me, Briggs said, “Yeah MISS GARRITY, did you see the show last night?” He was mad. He was hurt. I was speechless. “Or maybe you’d like to see the picture one of my buddies just sent me?” he asked, accusingly. Oh my God; Vince took a picture of us. How in the world could I have thought any of this was a good idea?

“Yeah Briggs, I caught the show; Leo, why don’t you gather up your yard stuff, and I’ll be right with ya?” What was I going to say to either one of them? Leo sensed something was off, he looked from Briggs to me, and then back to Briggs, curiously. He shrugged, and walked away.

I walked closer to Briggs, lowering my voice, “Briggs, this is not what you think…” He cut me off.

“Come on, look at it,” he said, showing me the picture. “That dude’s sucking your damn finger. I get it, don’t worry about it; it’s cool.” He started walking away. I stopped him.

“Briggs wait, what? What do you get?” I grabbed his arm, turning him to face me, questioning him.

He stopped. His eyes softened; he pushed a stray strand of my hair behind my ear, and said, “I get it; you wanna date, you just don’t wanna date me.” His eyes dropped; he pulled his hand away, turned, and left. I couldn’t speak; that’s how all this looked to him. I’d just spent all night screwing the shit out of him and told him that I didn’t want to date anyone. Then, he sees a picture of me out with another student with my thumb in his mouth, eating ice cream. How else would this look to Briggs? Fuck.

Getting ready to go after him, Leo came up next to me and said, “What was that all about?” I couldn’t deal with him too.

“Nothing really; he’s got something going on with Garrity Advertising,” I lied. I hated lying to Leo, but the last thing he needed was to be embroiled in this mess with Briggs.

“Man, I’ll tell ya what, that guy surprised the Hell out of me,” Leo said, excitedly. “After that surfing accident, I thought he’d just fuck up his life, never go anywhere,” he explained, shaking his head in disbelief. “But he’s on the fast track now; that ESPN special made him out to be a king.” Leo was awed by Briggs’ comeback and success. It was inspiring. Briggs was an amazing man. He was so tenacious, so confident, and God, so sexy. Oh shit.

I told Leo that I had some things to take care of and that I’d see him next time he was over. He was reluctant to leave, waiting to say something. We both knew that we had unfinished business between us. But now, I knew maybe that business needed to remain unfinished. I wasn’t sly or courageous enough to attempt, Hell, to even think about juggling two men at once. I’d leave that trick to Char. Char! She’d know how to handle this.

When Leo left, I called Char and told her everything. “Holy Fuck! That’s way too much information to process.” She was freaking out on the phone. “Janelle, we need a catch up day, soon. But first, get that hot piece of ass back to your house and make him forgive you.”

I wanted to, but I wasn’t certain what to do. Needing help, I asked, “But what, what can I do?”

“Do what girls have been doing forever, tease the shit out of him, he’ll come back.” She wished me well and hung up. I realized that, but how? She was of no help. What could I do or say that would make him come running back, wanting me again? Then it hit me, I knew exactly what I had to do.

While I was in New York, Jocelyn, Rick, and Dave, cleared my junk out of my house and stored it in Jasper’s giant storage room. I went to the storage area and sifted through all the boxes, discovering all sorts of things that I needed, including my very missed vibrator. Finally, I hit pay dirt, finding exactly what I needed. If this didn’t work, then nothing was going to get Briggs Alexander back to me, back in my bed where I enjoyed every inch of him. I texted him and asked him to come over.

It took longer than I expected for his response.

Sorry got plans.
Damn, I hated that I hurt him, pissed him off. That was never my intention. I was in over my head; this was unchartered territory for me.

Alright, if this didn’t work, then I’d be the laughingstock of the town, because he’d have the proof right in the palm of his hands. I slipped out of my teal romper, shucked off my strapless bra and thong, and shimmied into the infamous baby costume. Realizing that my hair was braided, I giggled, knowing that was the final touch. I only zipped up the costume to the top of my stomach, barely covering my breasts; they were spilling out of the opening. Lying back on my couch, hating myself for stooping to such ridiculous levels, I snapped a picture of myself.

Attaching the picture to a text that read:
Are you sure you can’t stop by for just a few minutes?
I hit send and waited. A minute went by, no response. Five minutes went by, no response. After fifteen minutes, I decided to throw in the towel; I’d lost. He didn’t even respond; my baby costume picture was probably all over Facebook and Twitter already. I was going to be one of those people whose lives were ruined due to inappropriate texts, pictures, and sexting. I always warned my freshman girls about it, hoping to get through to them. Now, I was no better, no wiser than a 14-year-old girl.

Rejected, I went back to my bedroom. Standing in the full-length mirror about to unzip the pajamas, I heard, “Don’t you dare; that’s my job.” I turned around, Briggs was standing in the doorway of my bedroom. I walked over to him, wrapped my arms around him and kissed him hungrily. His mouth explored mine, ravenously, like neither of us had tasted the other in years. We tightly held one other, pressing our bodies together as one.

“Briggs,” with a raspy growl, “we need to talk,” I said.

“Now?”

I nodded, leading him back to the living room, away from the bed. I needed to talk to him before anything went any further, before either of us got hurt. He sat on the couch; I sat in a chair across the room, the ultimate tease, distance between us.

“I’m sorry about today—wait, let me finish,” I said, shushing him before he could interrupt me. “I hate what you saw, what Vince sent you, but there is nothing going on between Leo Cling and me.” I explained. He shifted on the couch; his body language saying that he didn’t believe me. “Briggs, look at me. This can’t be about anything other than sex and fun.” I said, needing him to understand me.

“Janelle…” he said, trying to stop me.

“I’m not kidding around here,” I stood up, pacing the floor. “I don’t know what I’m doing; I’m so messed up right now. I know that I want you, want you so badly, all the time.” He smiled, starting to come toward me. I held up my hand, stopping him. “But I’m not ready for anything more than that. Can’t handle it.” I hoped that he understood.